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residential trip for my child in mainstream school

maisy

I have a 10yr old son who has AS. He is in mainstream school and next year the school has planned a residential trip. It will be five nights away from home. My son suffers with anxiety at any changes in his routine and this trip will be a big change in his routine. Although he communicates very well, if he anxious or scared his communicating abilites shut down. He relies on me to communicate to other people when he is stressed. Actually he relies on me for  a lot of things during the day. The school said I can go with him as I work at the school as a Governor but I have a younger son with ASD too and cannot leave him.

My eldest son would like to go but at the same time he doesn't understand what exactly is involved. If anyone has already been through this I would like there advice as I am not sure what to do. I do not want to deny him the opportunity to go and hopefully enjoy himself but the other side of the coin is I could let him go and he hates it.

  • Hi, my son went to a residential activity course a year ago.  Despite going through his requirements with the school and being assured that they would be dealt with, it was not. They were, however, good at showing him pictures of the place and giving him a timetable of the planned activities.

    I would check directly with the place that they are going to about facilities available, particularly for a place for your child to go to when they are feeling the need for peace and quiet.  Also find out if the centre/school will allow your child the security blanket of being able to call you if the need is there for comfort's sake.  My son had good times and bad times whilst he was away, most of the bad times were in the evenings when the only place he could go to get away from everyone was the bedroom (until the others went to bed).

  • Thank you very much for your comments. I have a meeting on Wednesday evening at the school with two of the teachers that will be going on the trip and I am trying to write a list of questions that I will need answers too. My son is looking forward to all the day time activities but he is worried about the evening time and night time. But as 'its just me' says it will be a very big achievement if he does succeed in doing it.

  • i the major am someone with asd and i went on a trip like that and i will admit so bit were fun but i didn't like some others i would ask the school what they will be doing on the trip and then see if your son wants to go or not

     

    i hope this helps

    the major

  • Hi Maisy

    I have a son who is now 12 with AS.  Last year he went away for a 4 night residential trip with his mainstream school.  I too was worried how he would cope as he needs a long time to adjust to new things.  The school were brilliant and we chatted alot about the proposed trip months in advance.   He was shown pictures of where he was going and we also looked at the website of the place where he would be staying.  All of the teachers who went knew of his diagnosis and supported him really well but also gave him the space he needed.  He came back tired and a little bit stressed but did enjoy the entire experience and I`m glad he did it.  Its such a hard decision and worry but from my experience my son enjoyed it and we can tick off another achievement for him.  I`m sure that if your son really hated it the school would phone you and you could collect him. 

    Hopefully this helps a little bit